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I. INTRODUCTION

I have been teaching Software Engineering class in university since 2009. This class is attracting attention of both academic and industry partners. The following video show case some of the groups that took on the Phylo, the trading card game concept. http://phylogame.org/. This them was sponsored by Dr. David Ng, Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (AMBL) Director and Senior Instructor at the University of British Columbia http://www.msl.ubc.ca/faculty/ng.

II. VIDEOS

Here are the list of projects that are under the Phylo theme

Group

Name

Description

Link to the videos

4

PhyloDecks

PhyloDecks is an iPhone application that serves as a learning tool for kids, students, and even adults. It is designed as a card game of biodiversity and strategy. People of all ages are welcome to play this game. PhyloDecks has a card collecting feature similar to Pokémon. However, instead of using imaginary creatures from Pokémon, all creatures the cards uses can be found in real life. This game encourages players to take their iPhone out into the real world. To address this issue, this application will feature the Google Maps API system to encourage players going outdoors. To make winning games easier, players can unlock more cards by visiting some GPS locations such as parks, beaches, museums, aquariums and so on. Before the game starts, players can choose to go over tutorials, using a default deck, to help players to understand the fundamentals of the game. The fluid UI system is the user interface design tool to design the tutorials.

6

PhyloHunt

Developed for the iPhone, PhyloHunt turns the Phylo card game into a mobile card deck and biodiversity education platform. PhyloHunt’s primary attraction is its scavenger hunt feature. Teachers can create custom hunts for elementary school students (ages 8-12), museums and other educational groups can create custom tours of exhibits for their visitors, and individual nature enthusiasts of all ages can select from pre-made missions. Mission objectives are completed by either capturing a photo or ticking off a checklist. Hunt leaders can review and verify submissions directly on their iPhone. Custom cards, decks, and missions can be created, browsed, and stored on each user’s iPhone. In addition, PhyloHunt provides a companion website with browse and print options. PhyloHunt gets you outside, exploring nature in its natural environment!

8

PhyloBattle

Phylo Battle is an app on the Apple iPad device that simulates the Phylomon Ecosystem Trading Card game. It grants its users access to a variety of different ecosystem themed decks, and the ability to play them with other players in a game to build the stronger ecosystem. This game is based on the Phylomon Ecosystem card game. It allows players to draw, discard, and play cards onto a simulated table. Phylo Battle supports up to two players allowing players to play against each other on the same device. Other features include an About menu, a Settings menu, in-game Settings menu, and game sounds. Phylo Battle is to useful teachers, parents, and other educators as a teaching aid. Phylo Battle implements a fun game that gets its users to learn about different ecosystems based on deck themes. This is attractive for such educators who aim to create a fun and engaging learning environment for their students. While Phylo Battle’s helps educate about biodiversity, it also aims to provide a fun and strategic game.

11

PhyloDex

The Phylodex is implemented as an iPhone application built to be a companion piece to the Phylo trading card game project. In general, the software is designed to encourage children from 8 to 12 years old to discover and identify their surrounding environment and nature. This is in part designed to address the fact that “During their primary school years, children apparently learn far more about Pokemon than about their native wildlife and enter secondary school being able to name less than 50% of common wildlife types”1. The software provides both a user interface linked to the natureserve.org web service, which allows users to look up and gain information on animals by searching for their name or features, as well as a tool for children to go out and take photos of animals in the world around them and virtually ‘capture’ them in a format much like collectible trading cards. The goal of this software is to combine children’s proven interest in collecting creatures as demonstrated by Pokémon with going out and discovering nature outdoors.

12

VirtualPhylo

VirtualPhylo will consist of two types of applications: a tablet application along with a web application. The tablet application will simulate a virtual playing environment that is similar to the physical playing environment of the Phylo trading card game. When using the virtual playing environment, users can draw cards from their decks, place cards in any position on the playing field, and discard cards from the game. On the other hand, the web application and the tablet application allows users to custom build their own Phylo decks by searching and adding cards to their decks. Users can also edit their decks by adding new cards from the database and removing existing cards from their decks. Once the deck editing or deck creating is complete, the user can choose to either print their deck from the web application or play with the deck within the tablet application.

13

BiomeBattle

Biome Battle is an iPhone application based on the idea “Children know more about Pokémon than they do about the plants and animals in their neighborhood” (David Ng, 2013). The purpose is to encourage children and teenagers with a general understanding of how to use an iPhone, to go outside and learn the different aspects of biodiversity by playing an implementation of the PHYLO trading card game. The application will include various features such as Card Collection, a Battle Mode, and a Gallery. This application allows users to go outdoors with their iPhone’s GPS to collect cards, which in turn can be used to battle other users. A gallery mode will be included for users to see what cards they have collected. Downloading this application will encourage children and teenagers to learn about biodiversity while still enjoying a good game.

14

PhyloHunter

PhyloHunter is an iOS companion app to the wildly successful Phylo collectable trading card game. The Phylo community goal of increasing people’s knowledge of biodiversity with a focus at the younger generation is helped with PhyloHunter by gamifying the learning process [1]. Through the digitization of Phylo cards, children aged 8+ become ‘PhyloHunters’ with the goal to “Scan ‘Em All” in a scavenger-hunt style while at a museum or other biodiversity exhibit. Affiliated biodiversity exhibits will have QR codes dispersed around their exhibits presented near the information plaques of corresponding cards. With each QR code scanned, an upgrade is awarded to the corresponding card upon successfully answering a multiple choice question from the server. The questions encourage PhyloHunters to further understand the species depicted in their cards so that they can get a greater view of biodiversity. Furthermore, understanding the questions help the PhyloHuntlers improve their game skills by knowing important connections and requirements of each card. Understanding these connections and requirements help the PhyloHunters wield their cards more wisely during battles and build superior sets. The PhyloHunter Card Viewer helps PhyloHunters view the cards they have, and highlights the cards they have powered-up. The ability to see these power-up cards in the ‘Card Viewer’ allow the PhyloHunters to successfully complete a scavenger hunt at an affiliated museum or biodiversity exhibit because any card they don’t have from the corresponding affiliated museum will be in the viewer as a gray, faded out card. However, if the PhyloHunter missed a card at the exhibit, they can use the PhyloHunter Share Card feature with another PhyloHunter to obtain any missing cards.

15

PhyloPhynder

Phylo-Phynder is a fun way for adolescents to learn actively about animals. Because of the phenomenon that children know more about the Pokemon than the plants and animals in the neighborhood, we develop Phylo-Phynder as a game app for iOS devices that incorporates a scavenger hunt and a short quiz about animals/ecosystems. Targeted at two main demographics, students aged 7-17 and teachers/parents. The app will have two main features including the playable portion and a customizable portion. For the playable portion, users go to each checkpoint displayed on their virtual map and answer a quiz, if they get it right they earn points. This is similar to the idea of “The Amazing Race”. In the second portion, users can create their own scavenger hunt in their own area for others to play with various levels of difficulty for the quizzes.